Portuguese Presidency promotes Digital Day to strengthen and reinforce startups in the EU

This Friday, 19 March, the 2021 edition of Digital Day took place in virtual format. It was jointly organised by the European Commission and the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, bringing Member States together to discuss the challenges of digital technology and the ways that countries can address them, thus helping the EU to be the leader in the twin green and digital transition.

During this edition, the Member States signed four declarations, in key areas where digital technology will have a highly significant impact:

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  Startup Nation Standards
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  European Data-Gateway Platform Strategy
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  A Green and Digital Transformation of the EU
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  European Green Digital Coalition

The Declaration on the European Startup Nation Standards brings together a set of policies in an attempt to harmonise the ecosystem of European startups and strengthen it by providing support. It also identifies areas that are critical for any startup ecosystem in the 27 Member States to guarantee standards on this matter.

Furthermore, the Declaration on the European Data-Gateway Platforms Strategy will help to prepare Europe for the exponential increase in data expected in the coming years and to secure links between Europe and the rest of the world which ensure Europe has a strong presence in those digital markets and thus allow it to create a supply of European digital services.

Similarly, the signing of the Declaration on A Green and Digital Transformation of the EU will help to accelerate Europe’s role in the global leadership of the green digital transformation, on the basis of both the conclusions of the Council of 17 December 2020 on “Digitalisation for the benefit of the environment” and the Digital Strategy.

Finally, the Declaration on the European Green Digital Coalition, which was signed by industry, aims to help to accelerate the transition of the IT sector to a sustainable, climate-neutral, circular and zero-polluting economy, while it will also contribute to the creation of an innovative, sustainable, inclusive and resilient society and economy.

During Digital Day 2021, the Portuguese Minister of State for the Economy and the Digital Transition, Pedro Siza Vieira, emphasised the setting-up of the Europe Startup Nations Alliance, within the framework of the Declaration on the European Startup Nation Standards.

He stated that “this way, in its mission as the holder of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, Portugal wishes to contribute further with what it believes to be a tool and structure that will serve as the main aggregator and source of information and promotion with respect to the European ecosystem as a whole. This contribution, in the form of a permanent European structure, has a further key aim, namely to strengthen and reinforce startup entrepreneurship in the European Union, against a background in which the retention of startups and talent in this sector should be promoted”.